I’ve noticed that one of my regular visitors, recently, is from Oregon in the US. It’s probably not soon enough, but welcome. Nice to see you and, may I point out, that this entry is really for you as you are keep returning, probably looking for a new post.
Second Life is a phenomenon. The virtual world where you create your own persona, a new persona. You can be anything you want. You create yourself as a beauty, as strong, as someone you aren’t in real life, in First Life.
It’s difficult to write every day – as you can tell, because there aren’t entries every day. I do try to write, following L’s advice, but much of the output is fairly banal and not worth posting. I find myself trying to think of things to write about knowing, as I do, that the blogs that I like have regular posts, giving me a story that’s more interesting to read, that I want to follow. For example, Wandering Scribe, now that her situation has changed, has stopped posting so often and, in turn, I’ve stopped looking so often, whereas, Italy is Falling, The Magistrate and My Boyfriend Is ….., post regularly, so I look at their blogs every day. Continue reading
I really wish there was a decent blog search facility that allowed random blog searching. I’ve used the one on JournalSpace – but that only searches JournalSpace blogs. The one on Blogger does the same. Using Technorati and Google Blog Search, you have to type in a subject.
Looking at blogs and things on the web, I’ve noticed many people outside Italy don’t really get Italian driving at all. They all think Italian drivers are mad. However, there are very clear and distinct rules on the road, here. In general, it’s very easy.
When driving one must assume that the car in front, behind or to the side of you could, at any moment, choose to do anything they like. They could pull in front of you. Stop for no reason. Accelerate, slow down, turn right, left or do a u-turn. All without signalling, of course. They will, probably just move to where they want to go.
What is important is that, whatever the time of day or night you are ready, with your hand poised, to blast your horn with as much vigour as possible, preferably keeping the horn pressed for a minimum of 1 minute, so that they realise you’re there.
Of course, this won’t make them change anything they’re doing, but it gives you a better feeling about it all. Of course, when youre driving, any idea of following any road signs, traffic light signals, lane markings, etc. is entirely your choice.
Especially, one should completely ignore lane markings as these are for guidance only. The most preferable thing is to drive along using part of two lanes so as to make sure that no-one can actually pass you.
When turning right, (bearing in mind that we’re all driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road), one should move as far over to the left as is possible, thereby ensuring that you hold up traffic behind you. Inevitably, the quick thinking people will immediately pass those cars on the right, whilst holding their hand down on the horn. Even better, of course, is to signal left when you are actually going to turn right. This ensures the correct amount of confusion for any foreign drivers.
Google blog searches are not really that good. If you search for a blog by relevance (the default) and then search by date, some blogs that appear in the first are omitted from the second! Freaky. So, say you search for ‘milan italy’. The first search results page shows blog A, updated 15 minutes ago. Then click on the search by date (which lists them in reverse order (i.e. last updated showing at the top of the page) and sometimes, blog A is not there! How can that be?
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So, blogging! It’s interesting stuff. To be honest most blogs are rambles by teenagers or people who think they’re teenagers. Search through the blogs in Blogspot, Journalspace, etc. and most of the information is banal, to say the least. You might find some like minded people, but mostly you don’t – or maybe I’m looking in the wrong places – or maybe there aren’t any people who think like me (which wouldn’t really surprise me).
I’ve become obsessed by SEO. No, it’s not anything to do with Milan, Italy, Italians or food. Its to do with web stuff and stands for Search Engine Optimisation (or Optimization by people who are American or people who don’t realise that the correct spelling in English is with an “s” and not a “z” – you see, having been an English teacher for over a year has, somewhat, coloured my ideas about the English language and spelling, etc.) Continue reading
Hi everyone. Happy New Year, Buon Anno e Auguri!
OK, so I know it’s been a while since our last update, but we have had a very busy year and time just slipped away.
However, not having the ability to email for most of the last month or so – and particularly now (something up with the hosting company) means I have a chance to sit and write something. And now (as you can see) I have the ability to blog – which is just fantastic. Will that make me better in the future – we shall see!
